Shiori of The Grass - Secrets of Sound
by GarraMayFire
Summary: When a promising young kunoichi from the Village Hidden in The Grass is kidnapped by a ruthless S-Rank criminal, her life and will to live comes spiraling downward. But in a twist of fate she escapes, determined to understand why she had been taken, and more importantly... Why her parents hadn't come looking for her.
1. Freedom

**Chapter 1 - Freedom**

Her feet moved swiftly through the ankle-deep snow that covered the ground of the forest. With every exhale of hot breath came a thick, white puff of fog in the cold winter air. How long had she been running? It felt like it had been years though she knew different; it had been only hours since she snuck onto the roof and escaped from the balcony of Orochimaru's research facility. The fool had forgotten to put a bind on her chakra when he released her from her chains this morning and she was not about to let this opportunity slide through her fingers again.

It had been at least 8 months since she had seen the outdoors and since her last escape attempt; it was still warm the last time she managed to sneak away from the serpentine bastard, and since she had not been let out in so long all she had were her light training clothes. A short sleeved black shirt with a mesh cutout on the midsection and black sweatpants clung to her body along with her ninja sandals. The cold was bitter against her pale skin, she was sure if she survived she would be frostbitten, but it was a chance she had to take. Her legs were growing numb and slowing her down as she stopped and leaned against a tree, catching her breath. Grabbing a red ribbon from her pouch, she gathered her waist-length brown hair into a high ponytail and tied it tightly, pushing her bangs out of her face. Until now she had been oblivious to how long her hair was getting, it had been almost a year since she had a haircut.

A twig snaps in the distance and she clings to the tree she's been resting on, bringing her hands up in preparation to make handsigns. She focuses her hearing, listening for any noises that sound out of place. Just as she's about to declare the area safe again, the sound of shurriken whizzing through the air causes her to duck and roll in the snow. Three razor-sharp shurriken hit the tree and stick right where her head would've been. She looks up just in time to see a sound ninja, no doubt one of Orochimaru's mindless drones, finishing a set of handsigns, and in the blink of an eye he's disappeared. She reaches back to her pouch, grabbing a kunai from it, but as she reaches her hand back she feels a hand grip her wrist tightly.

"You really have some nerve trying to escape again. To think Orochimaru-sama was starting to trust you," crooned a familiar voice, one she immediately matched to Kabuto Yakushi a.k.a. Orochimaru's right hand man.

He twisted her wrist behind her back, using his free hand to swiftly hit the back of her neck, hoping to knock her out. As his hand made contact with the back of her neck, he was enveloped by a puff of smoke and suddenly she was gone, leaving a log in her place.

"A substitution jutsu, eh?" Kabuto smirked evilly to himself, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. A snow-covered bush rattled in the distance, alerting Kabuto of his prisoner's position. "You're a clever girl, but not quite clever enough," he said as he drew a kunai from his pouch, readying it. He lunged at the bush, finding it empty, much to his dismay.

"Why don't you just give up? I'm sure Orochimaru-sama will accept you back with open arms. You are his favorite toy, after all," he yelled.

The sound of footsteps crunching in the snow behind him caused him to turn, barely giving him enough time to dodge her kunai's cut. It slices through the collar of his shirt and barely nicks him. He dodges as she stabs at him a second and third time, then grabs her wrist and squeezes with all of his chakra-infused force, causing her to drop her weapon.

"You should know I'm not that easy," she says through gritted teeth, spinning into a roundhouse kick aimed right for the ninja's head. Her sandal makes contact with his temple, knocking him backwards; but like she did before, he disappears in a puff of smoke.

She picks her kunai from the snow, standing in an offensive pose as she tries desperately to hear him or sense his chakra to no avail. From a nearby tree she hears him yell out: "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Suddenly she is surrounded by his shadow clones. One by one she fights them off, some of them landing hits but each one disappearing into a puff of smoke with her attacks. One shadow clone manages to kick her kunai from her hand, and as she turns to grab it two more clones grab her arms and slam her back down into the snow, consequently knocking her head against a tree stump that had been hidden under it. Her vision grows blurry and a small puddle of blood forms under her head as three Kabutos stand over her, two clones and the real one. The clones dissipate as he releases his handsigns.

"You really have improved since the first time I watched you fight. No wonder Orochimaru-sama favors you over the others," he laughs breathily. Straddling her midsection and sitting on her stomach, he grabs her chin and forces her to look at him. "Now, wouldn't it have been much simpler to just come along quietly?"

"Fuck you," she spat painfully, trying her best to exert confidence and ignore the searing pain in her skull. He smirked devilishly as his grip on her chin tightened.

"My, what a vulgar vocabulary. That's no way for a lady to speak, you know. I really ought to punish you for that."

"Lay a hand on me and you'll be Orochimaru's newest experiment," she threatened half-heartedly. She knew she was replaceable, she knew Orochimaru didn't need her - but he wanted her, and perhaps the thought of the possible repercussions would be enough to stay Kabuto's hand.

"On the contrary, I've been given explicit permission to take you by whatever means necessary, and my only instructions were to make sure you were alive. He never said that I couldn't rough you up a bit," he laughed as his hands grabbed her wrists.

"G..get off of me," she stuttered, not from fear but from the cold seeping through her thin clothing and the blood she was losing. He gave her no reply as his hands lit up with a blue light around her wrists, rendering her paralyzed and unable to defend herself. He sat back and laughed as she struggled to move her arms, her tender, bruised skin shivering in the cold air.

"You're pitiful, but I'd be lying if I said you weren't attractive," he said as his hand trailed down her neck and onto her chest. "Which I'm sure is another thing Orochimaru likes about you," he purred as he grabbed the kunai she had dropped earlier.

He slid it under the hem of her shirt, dragging the tip of the blade deathly close to her soft flesh as he tore through the thin fabric. Her face became panicked as she realized what he was about to do, but her freezing cold skin, blood loss and paralysis were making it hard to fend him off. His hands pried at her bandaged chest.

"I'm sure Orochimaru-Sama wouldn't mind if I helped myself, don't you agree?" He whispered huskily into the helpless kunoichi's ear.

His hand slid down her trembling stomach and teased the elastic of her sweatpants. A sudden spike in chakra caused him to stop in his tracks. He looked up at his victim, her eyes squeezed tight and her lips trembling. It wasn't her, she was too scared. Helpless. But now he couldn't sense any other chakra signatures in the area. Slowly he stood, holding her kunai in one hand while he scanned the area. A kunai flew through the air and plunged into his back causing him to scream in pain. Reaching back to grab it, his hand feels a scrap of paper attached to the cold metal knife.

"Shit!" He screams, pulling the knife out and quickly chucking it in the direction it came from. It sticks into the trunk of a tree in the distance, and Kabuto leans down to grab his prisoner. Jerking her up by the arm, he throws her limp body onto his shoulder and take off in the opposite direction.

"What the fuck is-" she starts, but is cut off by a huge, fiery explosion.

Trees are on fire, the snow is melting, and from the plume of black smoke comes three running figures. Two men and a girl from what she can tell.

"Don't you worry, I'll get you back home safe," he says with a smirk. Focusing his chakra into his feet, he climbs a tree and drops her onto a thick branch. "Don't move," he says. "Oh, wait. You can't! I'm hilarious," he says as he jumps down to the ground.

"Asshole," she breathes, still struggling against his paralysis jutsu.

In the distance she hears fighting, presumably between Kabuto and the three she saw running after them. She feels a spike of chakra just like before and the paralysis seems to weaken, allowing her finger to move just a bit. With every jutsu he uses and every hit he takes, Kabuto grows weaker and his hold over her weakens as well. Finally she is able to move her arm, and excitedly she moves it around in an attempt to get the feeling back. One wrong, over-excited movement causes her body to slip from the edge and she tumbles from the tree, smacking into the trunk and several branches. She hears something in her stomach snap. Just like that, she hits the cold ground and falls unconscious.


	2. Salvation in The Leaves

**Chapter 2 - Salvation in the Leaves**

She wakes up groggily, but able to move, and in a haze she reaches up and touches her head. Immediately she is hit with a wave of pain, remembering her fall. She fell from the tree and then... She suddenly becomes aware of the arms wrapped around her back and under her knees. Who is this? She begins to panic, reasoning that it couldn't be Kabuto as he wouldn't treat her so gently. He would've forcefully woken her up, beat her senseless for taking advantage of his weakness in order to escape.

Her eyes crack open and she sees her torso is covered in a black and orange jacket. She cranes her neck gently to look up at this person's face. His eyes are blue, squinted in determination and his skin pale but red with the chill of the air. Three whisker marks line both of his cheeks. His unnaturally blonde hair sways in the wind as he jumps from limb to limb in the trees.

"Who do you think she is? I don't see any clan symbols or even a forehead protector," yells a disembodied voice.

She moves her eyes to the side and sees a slender, pale boy with black hair.

"I don't know, but we need to find out. Kabuto sure seemed determined to have her, she's gotta be something important," yelled another voice, one belonging to a girl with shoulder-length pink hair.

"She's got pretty small chakra reserves so she's definitely not a Jinchuriki," yells the blonde. He looks down at her but she snaps her eyes shut, not wishing to engage with them just yet. The warmth radiating from the boy carrying her and the peaceful rhythm of their feet hitting the tree branches mixed with the pain in her broken body slowly lulls her back into unconsciousness.

After what feels like days, she wakes up in an unfamiliar room. The ceiling is white, the walls are white; she tries to turn to see the floor but her midsection is restricted. She tries to move her arms to unbind her torso but her arms are restricted as well. In a moment of weakness she panics, thinking that somehow Orochimaru or Kabuto had snatched her from the three ninja who rescued her and had taken her to a room in the facility she had never seen, she struggled against the leather restraints that held her down and gazed down at her body. She still had on the black and orange jacket but underneath it her ribs were tightly bandaged. The shirt Kabuto had cut from her chest had been replaced with another similar one. She was still wearing her pants, but they were stained in blood and had flakes of dirt on the knees, and her shoes were gone.

The sound of the bed rails clinking against the metal frame brought attention to her as she struggled. The curtain surrounding her bed was drawn back slowly, and in walked the three who had rescued her along with an older lady with brown eyes and long blonde hair divided into two low pigtails in the back.

"Well, I see our guest is finally awake," smiled the older lady, but the wariness in her voice was clear.

"Yeah, you slept for forever, chick," chimed in the blonde boy who had carried her away from Kabuto's grasp. The pink-haired girl punched him in the shoulder, barking at him:

"You're such an idiot, Naruto! Did you not see the injuries she had?! She was probably exhausted! Of course she slept for a while, she needed time to heal!" The blonde boy rubbed his shoulder defensively.

"Jeez, Sakura, you don't always have to punch me when you're trying to make a point," he growled. The slender, pale boy from before simply stood there in silence, observing the girl's current state with an emotionless gaze.

"Naruto, Sakura, both of you stop it. I don't have time to listen to your pointless bickering," yelled the older blonde woman. "Since you already know these two, let me introduce the rest of us. The quiet one over there is Sai," she pointed to the pale boy, who nodded in acknowledgment. "And I'm Tsunade," the girl remembered hearing Orochimaru utter that name before with the same disdain that she felt when she thought of his name. "The fifth Hokage of the village you're currently in."

'Hokage,' the girl thought to herself. 'I'm in the hidden leaf.'

They stood in silence staring at the bound girl for a few moments.

"Now would be the time for you to introduce yourself," growled the woman known as Tsunade. "What is your name?"

Suddenly becoming nervous, the girl looked at all four of the leaf ninja surrounding her.

"Shiori Nishimura," she said quietly. Naruto jumped in closer to her face, with a hand cupping his ear.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you," he said loudly. Shiori did her best to scoot away from his closeness.

"Sh-Shiori Nishimura!" she yelled, stuttering nervously. Naruto turned and eyed her suspiciously, scratching the back of his neck.

"That's a weird name. Never heard of ya," he said, folding his arms behind his head. Sakura glared at him, he never was one to be polite. She drug him backwards and moved into the space he was previously occupying.

"And what village are you from?" asked Tsunade.

"I'd feel a lot more comfortable answering your questions if I wasn't strapped to a bed," quipped Shiori. Raising her eyebrows in curiosity, Tsunade signaled for some nurses to unstrap her. Two male nurses walked in quickly, undoing the straps that held down Shiori's arms, legs and torso.

"Now, what village are you from?" Tsunade asked a second time, growing obviously annoyed as she kept a close eye on the potential enemy.

"I'm from-"

Flashbacks of her old life circled through her mind. The last good memory she had, the last memory of being home, was well over 6 years ago. It almost seemed as though Kusagakure wasn't her home anymore. She had been gone for so long, stranded and tortured within the confines of that research facility in Otogakure; she wondered what the people at home had imagined happened to her. Or if they had even noticed she was gone in the first place. She came back to her senses when she heard the sole of Tsunade's shoe tapping the ground impatiently.

"I'm from Kusagakure," she spat out.

"Kusagakure? The Village Hidden in the Grass. Interesting," said Tsunade. "Interesting because, if you are from Kusagakure, why the hell were you found in the forest between the Hidden Sound and the Hidden Leaf? And why, might I ask, were you being so feverishly sought after by the henchman of one of our greatest enemies?" Tsunade replied, becoming offensive as if ready to attack at any given moment. Not knowing how to answer, Shiori choked up. Tsunade, inferring her silence to be caused by nothing more than defiance, strided forward and grabbed her by the collar of the borrowed jacket she was wearing, yanking her up out of the hospital bed.

"You're going to start talking right now or I'm going to beat the information out of you, do you understand?" Shiori stuttered nervously, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I was- I-I was-"

Memories of her days in Orochimaru's grip flooded her head. He played mind games with her, cruel mind games; one day he would make her feel safe, comfortable even, but then he would turn on a dime and absolutely destroy every bit of her will to live. He would provide her with pictures of her friends and family in Kusagakure as a sort of peace offering, then without warning would steal them away from her, proclaiming that she no longer needed it because they no longer cared about her.

As much as she tried, she couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of her stomach that he was telling the truth. That none of them cared about her. They didn't care enough to save her when she was being taken, and as far as she knew they hadn't even reported her missing... So why would they, after so long, even think to come and rescue her from this living hell?

Aside from the emotional abuse was the physical, which left scars as proof on her back, legs and stomach. Orochimaru put her through literal hell. Spars with opponents three times bigger, more powerful than her; opponents who did not care that it was an 11 – 12 year old girl that they were beating to a pulp.

But Shiori had to admit, being beaten by random opponents was preferred, opposed to when Orochimaru decided to punish her himself. He may have been thin, but he was one of the craziest, most ruthless people she had ever had the displeasure of encountering in battle. He tortured her physically and mentally in battle with a barrage of genjutsu that were simply too complex and strong to free herself from.

He rendered her helpless, and that's what made her hate him.

Tsunade opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by a short brunette girl walking in, stack of papers in hand.

"Lady Tsunade, I-" she stopped dead in her tracks when she took in the scene before her eyes. The great and mighty Hokage was holding an obviously injured girl up by the collar of Naruto's jacket, and the girl was crying silently. "What in Kami's name are you doing, Lady Tsunade?!"

"I'm trying to get information out of this potential threat, Shizune, is that not obvious? I was-" She turned her head to look at the girl, cringing with tears staining her cheeks as she clutched her bandaged ribs. Tsunade sighed and threw her back down in a huff. "Look, just start talking and I'll try to keep my temper in check alright? I just need to know what you were doing out there and why Kabuto was after you," she rubbed her temples angrily, cursing at herself for losing control again.

Shizune stuffed the stack of papers she had been carrying into Tsunade's hands. "You might want to look over these before you beat this girl," Shizune sighed. Tsunade flipped through the papers; Shiori's permanent Shinobi record...

Shiori Nishimura, daughter of Rokuro and Setsuko Nishimura. Graduated to the genin class at age 10, mentored by Akemi Saito, teamed up with Daiki Takenaka and Kohaku Akiyama. The papers listed 27 D rank missions and one C rank missions, then after that, nothing. The record completely cuts off after her return from her C rank mission. Tsunade was overcome with confusion. How could this obviously talented girl just disappear from the very face of Kusagakure and have no one file a missing person's report?

"So what, are you some sort of runaway? Did you run away from home? You're skilled, you have a team, and you have parents. Why aren't you at home with them?" She asked confusedly.

"I was kidnapped," Shiori sobbed quietly. "I was kidnapped six years ago from Kusagakure and I haven't been out since then," she stared down at her hands. "They... They just took me, and..." Memories once again rushed back at her. A tall, pale man with long black hair and slitted eyes was holding her up by her hair, his slender hands knotted up in it. Her parents were standing against the wall with straight faces, ignoring her cries for help. The man's raspy voice spoke slowly and though she couldn't see it, she could almost hear the smirk in his words. "Thank you for your cooperation," Orochimaru said, "I'll make sure to put this one to good use." That was the night she was taken to Otogakure. The journey was long and quiet, the men wouldn't even look at her, they just dragged her along behind them as she sobbed silently, a sound-restricting jutsu paralyzing her vocal chords.

She kept asking herself why her parents hadn't fought for her, why they had ignored her when she really needed them. Then she became upset at herself for not being able to fend them off on her own, for not yelling louder so that maybe the neighbors would've heard her. When they arrived at Otogakure, she hoped and prayed to whatever omnipotent force may have been in the heavens that someone would save her from these people. But no one seemed to notice she was even there. She looked in the eyes of everyone they passed, silently pleading for their help but receiving only cold stares in return as they carried on what they were doing, as if they weren't really acknowledging her presence at all. That was where her nightmare began.

"Who took you?" Sakura's voice cut through Shiori's thoughts, bringing her back to reality and causing her to snap her head up to look at the pink haired Kunoichi.

Slowly, she turned her head to Tsunade, knowing that she would recognize the name. "Orochimaru," she breathed quietly. Immediately Tsunade, Sakura and Naruto froze up. Sakura took a step closer, clenching her shirt tightly.

"S-Sasuke," she stuttered. "Did you... Did you meet a boy named Sasuke?" her tone was sad, Shiori could tell, though she didn't know the reason. She scoured her brain for any remembrance of the name, but found none.

"The name doesn't sound familiar," she said softly.

"He was an Uchiha, black hair and black eyes," Naruto said almost as desperately as Sakura. Yes, the description rang more bells than the name, but what she remembered of the raven-haired man was not pleasant. They were both at the research facility and they were both tortured, pitted against each other in combat, yet with all the torment they experienced the man she now knew as Sasuke never once tried to run. He never once seemed to want to leave. It was as if he was there on his own free will. It was if he _enjoyed_ it. She was strong; but not strong enough to be a match for him. Every time Orochimaru made them fight, it ended badly for her. Sasuke was determined; determined and crazy powerful. He gave her no mercy. Broken bones, burns and stab wounds were normal for her to walk away with – that is if she could walk at all by the time Orochimaru called him away from her and had Kabuto scrape up what was left of her broken body from the cobblestone floor of the sparring room.

"I remember him," Shiori said. A tight smile made its way to Naruto and Sakura's faces.

"Was he okay? What happened? How long was he there?" They asked, almost in unison.

"I didn't deal much with him. Just for sparring and stuff," she started, "He's…" Shiori slowly rolled up the leg of her sweatpants to mid-thigh, revealing a deep, puffy, nearly-healed scar. "He's determined," she said with a pained look tracing the tender skin with her index finger. Naruto and Sakura exchanged looks of shame before looking at the floor, mourning the moral downfall of their cherished comrade.


	3. The Wrath of Golden Eyes

**Chapter 3 - The Wrath of Golden Eyes**

"What'd Orochimaru want with you?" Tsunade asked, choosing not to indulge in their conversation about the Uchiha traitor.

"I don't know," she replied. Tsunade rolled her eyes and clenched the papers in her hands.

"What do you **mean** you don't know? You expect me to believe you have no idea why an S-Rank criminal just decided to kidnap you from Kusagakure? There's something you're not telling me, I know it," Tsunade squinted her eyes and sighed disgruntledly. "But I can't prove it," she finished, turning to Shizune and starting to walk away. "Naruto, Sai, Sakura, one of you stay here with her while I look into some things. If they release her just... keep an eye on her,"

The three chunin gave her a resounding yes as she walked out of the room. Immediately, Sakura shut the curtain and took a few slow steps closer to Shiori.

"Lady Tsunade's temper is a little out of control when it comes to things like this," she said apologetically.

"Whatever, granny Tsunade is cranky pretty much all the time so you just have to ignore her," Naruto said, folding his arms behind his head again and giggling.

"Do you even have a shred of an idea how disrespectful it is for you to call the Hokage 'granny?'" Sakura spat.

"Oh blah blah blah, it's harmless. Lighten up, Sakura!" he nudged her shoulder. Anger flared immediately in her eyes and she responded with a punch to the face and more arguing. Shiori stared at them, mostly because she felt awkward just sitting there while they fought but also because she was really, really entertained. She watched silently and intently, not even noticing Sai coming closer to her. He crept up near her face and inspected her diligently, taking note of her silky hair and strange, pupil-less golden eyes. Her skin was pale and soft, no doubt a result of being kept from the sunlight for so long. When Shiori felt his breath tickle at the side of her face she snapped her head in his direction, flinching away when she saw how close they were.

"What the f-"

"You're an odd one, aren't you?" He asked bluntly, not a single drop of emotion clinging to his words, but his voice was soft and smooth.

"I...What?" She asked, dumbfounded. She wasn't sure whether to take that as genuine curiosity or as an insult.

"You don't speak a lot. You observe, people watch. And by the way your eyes and nostrils were flaring a moment ago I can tell that you're not feeling very comfortable here in this situation," he said, taking the initiative and sitting on the hospital bed near her. She inched away from him, not feeling particularly comfortable with his sudden closeness. "Your eyes are also odd, I've never seen golden eyes before." He turned to face her, blatantly ignoring her obvious discomfort as he moved closer again. She was backed up against the cold tile wall of the hospital as he spoke slowly. "Is it some sort of doujutsu, or are those just your natural eyes? I read a lot of books about visual bloodline limits but I've never heard of golden eyes."

"They're just my eyes," she stammered quietly, pressing her back flush against the tiles to get away from his prying gaze, to no avail.

"Do you mind if I get a closer look?" He asked, and as she opened her mouth to tell him yes, she did mind, he raised his arms as if to take her face in his hands, obviously not planning to wait for her to answer. She ducked out of his reach, rolling off of the bed onto the cold floor with a thud, pain shooting through the back of her head and in her ribs. She cringed and clenched her fists, regretting what she had just done.

Sakura and Naruto ceased their arguing when they heard the noise, taking a few hasty steps in her direction. Naruto kneeled down and took her arm gently to pull her up, but she jerked away and shakily stood to her feet, moving away from the trio.

"You should sit back down, you're going to hurt your ribs," Sakura said nuturingly, taking a step towards her.

"Stop," Shiori muttered, but Sakura paid her no mind.

"Please, sit back down. You need more time with a healer before you can be up moving around," there was a desperate tone to her voice as she noticed Shiori moving dangerously close to the window that had been cracked open earlier. She took yet another step forward. "We're just trying to help you, we're not-"

"I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP! JUST DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" She yelled, cringing in pain as the words left her mouth. She gripped her ribs and glanced around, feeling a presence behind her she turned straight into the body of a large male nurse. He stared down at her curiously, placing his hands on her arms to keep her from running. She panicked, squirming from his grip and swiftly kicking his legs out from under him. As he hit the ground she made a B-line out the door through the winding halls of the hospital, her bare feet barely touching the cold tile floor. She gripped the orange and black jacket to her broken frame, not caring whose it was or if they would want it back. She needed to get back to Kusagakure.

Back in the hospital room were the three leaf nin and the male nurse. Sakura was tending to the fresh cut on the nurse's forehead that he had sustained when he hit the floor.

"Don't just stand there, go after her! She's only going to hurt herself more by running around like a crazy person," she yelled at Naruto and Sai, who nodded swiftly in reply before running out the door themselves. They listened desperately for the sound of her feet hitting the tile, but could hear nothing.

"You go left, I'll go right," shouted Naruto as he turned down the hallway to his right.

"Right," Sai said as he dove to the left. Shiori had already run into three nurses, knocked over two shelves, and she was certain that the bandage around her head was soaking with blood. But she was drawing near to the exit and she wasn't about to stop now. Finally the glass doors were within eyesight, and as she ran past the checkout desk and through the door, she glanced behind her. No one was there. No one had followed her, so it seemed; or maybe they just hadn't caught up with her. Her bare feet crunched through the snow as fast as they could. She ducked and weaved through the crowd, all of them shooting her worried glances. Of course who wouldn't be worried about a girl covered in blood-soaked bandages running barefoot through the snowy streets of Konoha?

Back at the hospital, Naruto and Sai had jumped to the roof to look for her.

"No sign of her on my end," Sai yelled.

"Damnit. Nothing for me either," Naruto replied. "Granny Tsunade is gonna kill us. We were supposed to keep an eye on her." After a few seconds of searching, Naruto turned to Sai with a glare. "Wait a second,"

"Hm?"

"When I turned around after she fell out of bed you were sitting on the bed. Did you do something to her?" he asked. Sai cupped his chin and looked up, thinking back on the innocent gestures of curiosity that he had offered the girl.

"I told her she was strange and asked her if I could get a closer look at her eyes, and then she got upset. I don't really know why," Sai said obliviously.

"I'm no rocket scientist, but even I know why she got upset, Sai." Naruto said turning back to look over the edge of the hospital roof. Far in the distance, he could see a black and orange blotch running through the snow. "I FOUND HER!"

Without hesitation Naruto leapt from the ledge, jumping along the rooftops to get to her before she could escape with a bitter Sai struggling to keep up with him.

Shiori ducked into an alley, pressing her back against the cold brick wall of the structure she had sought shelter by. Only when she stopped to catch her breath did she notice the searing pain in her feet and legs, aching from direct contact with the snow. She cursed herself inwardly for not thinking to grab her shoes before she ran. She could hear laughter in the distance, growing louder. It sounded like a few people, all male. Not wishing to be seen, she ducked and hid behind one of the garbage cans in the alleyway, stealing glances around the edge in search of the source of the voices. Around a corner came two tall, older jounin; one with spiky silver hair and a mask covering his face with a copy of Makeout Paradise clutched in one hand, and one with a black bowl cut hairdo with bushy black eyebrows. Trailing behind them was a boy who could only be Mr. BowlCut's son, because he was the spitting image of him. Right down to the matching green jumpsuits and orange leg warmers.

"Gai-sensei, you're such an inspiration! You set such a wonderful example for the young shinobi of Konoha by straying from such vulgar literature!" shouted BowlCut junior. The older man laughed boisteriously, throwing his arm around the boy.

"Yes Lee, I am a prime specimen of shinobi! Honest and never vulgar, and I always give 210% of myself to everything I do! Unlike Kakashi here," he said, glancing over at the silver-haired man beside them, "Who can't even show up to his own team's training sessions because he's busy reading filth."

"If you would take me up on my invitation to attend book club with master Jiraya, you would see that Makeout Paradise is art, not filth," said Kakashi in a calm, mocking tone.

Shiori kept her eyes on them, praying silently that they would have no need to come her way. They were almost past the alley, and just as Shiori calmed down enough to take a deep breath, an icecicle cracked loose from the roof of the building she was under and hit the top of her head. She yelped out in pain as the sharp edge struck her skull, then slapped a hand over her mouth and used the other to touch her sore head. Lee's voice rang in her ears.

"Gai-sensei, did you hear that?"

"Yes, I did, but where did it come from?"

"Sounded like it came from the alley," Kakashi added nonchalantly, and for the umpteenth time today, Shiori was cursing at herself.

The sound of ninja sandals crunching slowly in the snow caused her to face her ultimatum: stay there and be captured yet again, or run and risk being followed deeper into the bowels of the unfamiliar city streets. With impending doom lingering just behind her, she chose the latter.

She shot up from the snow at breakneck speed, taking off running further down the alley and around the corner. The three male shinobi behind her were dumbfounded, they had no idea what was going on there.

"W...was that girl wearing Naruto's jacket?" Lee questioned quietly.

"Yeah, that's strange," Kakashi said, the genuine concern in his voice betraying his calm facial expression. Gai stood up from where he had been kneeling, holding a scoop of snow in his hand that had been stained with blood.

"Well men, we have ourselves a job. She was bleeding and judging by her foot prints, she was barefoot," he declared.

"Barefoot? In this freezing cold weather?! Surely she's some sort of damsel in distress, Gai-sensei! We must rescue her and assure that she's safe!"

"Thatta boy, Lee! Come on Kakashi, we have a damsel to rescue!" And with that, Lee and Gai sped off around the corner after their wounded damsel.

"Oh boy, just what I needed today," Kakashi said, shoving his copy of Makeout Paradise into his vest pocket, disappointed that he wouldn't get to go home finish reading it for what would to been the ninth time.


	4. The Handsome Devil's Golden Damsel

**Chapter 4 – The Handsome Devil's Golden Damsel**

Kakashi huffed out a sigh, wondering why he of all people had to be the one to get mixed into this situation. He couldn't just have a day off to himself, could he? No, of course not; it's always something in this damned village. And as long as Lee and Gai were on the scene, there'd be no way for him to get out of investigating this odd girl. If she were really a threat though, he was sure she could've done something to hide herself more effectively.

He jumped up onto the roof of the building to his right, scouting for Lee and Gai. A few blocks down he spotted a series of green flashes that he could only assume were them, and made haste in their direction.

Shiori was darting from alley to alley, knocking things and people over in her wake and mumbling her apologies while trying to outrun her enthusiastic pursuers. It was no use. They were fast as lightning, even managing to somehow get in front of her at some points and causing her to change direction. There was no way she could get out of this without using chakra, much to her dismay; she had been avoiding it so that her chakra signature would be nonexistent and therefore untraceable. Her hands flew, making the handsigns for the phoenix flower jutsu. She had no intention of hurting them, but what she could do was block their path with a well-tamed fire long enough to escape over the wall of the village and make her way back home.

She did just that, bringing her hands together in rapid succession before turning behind her with her fingers still in the tiger position. With a deep inhale and exhale came a burst of red hot fire, melting the snow from the ground as it graced it with its fiery caresses and rising to block her the path she came from when she raised her hands. She smirked in satisfaction as she watched the fire crackle, focusing her chakra into it as to not cause too much destruction to the village. She turned around to continue running and…

Came face to face with the masked man named Kakashi, who had somehow managed to slip in behind her while she had her back turned. Their bodies were mere inches apart as she turned, and she jumped back in surprise and tripped over her own feet, losing control of the fire as she fell back into the snow.

"You sure are a messy one. Have you seen the mess you left in those alleys back there? What did those fruit vendors ever do to you?" He asked with a friendly smile that was hidden in part by the mask on his face.

She only stared wide-eyed at him, completely baffled as to what her next move should be. Her heart clamored in her chest as her eyes darted back and forth between Kakashi and the village wall behind him, her only shot at freedom blocked by a powerful shinobi that outranked her by double.

Suddenly from behind, footsteps crunched through the snow and came to a screeching halt directly behind her. She snapped her head around to see none other than Lee and Gai, standing proudly as if they had found buried treasure.

"Great job, Kakashi! You found our young damsel! And here I thought you were a good for nothing pervert!" Gai laughed loudly as he strode right up to her and took in the sight of her. Pale skin made paler by the loss of blood, blood soaked bandages hugging her skull and stomach, and her skin stung red by the cold and her bare feet turning blue from direct contact with the snow. She looked like a wounded animal, a creature that had been taken in and abused and set out to die. He had planned to approach her as his normal, humorous self, but something in the way she looked at him, something about the fear in her eyes let him decide that that was not the way to approach her. He looked her over silently as she shivered, and then he sat down in the snow near her, letting her keep her distance so he wouldn't scare her away again. He liked to think he was in top physical condition, but this tiny girl gave him a run for his money and he didn't want to have to chase her down again and let Lee hear him wheezing.

"I know you're scared," he said in a solemn tone, "but whatever you think it is we want from you, I promise that's not what's going on. You're bleeding," he took a moment to look at her strange, golden eyes. "You're hurt, and you're cold. We want to help you."

She stared at him as he spoke, feeling the genuine concern seeping through his words but not yet knowing whether to trust it. She glanced between Lee and Kakashi, all of them huddling around her. Her eyes rested once again on Gai, not saying a word, but silently accepting his statement.

"I just wanted to go home," she said quietly. Gai stared at her sympathetically. "I didn't mean to mess anything up. I just… I wanted to get away."

"I can understand that," he said, tilting his head to the side. "I knew you didn't look familiar. But instead of running away from us, you could tell us where home is and we could see what we can do about getting you back there."

"Tsunade," Shiori said hastily. "Tsunade wants—"

"There she is! Sai, here she is, Kakashi-sensei found her!" Naruto's loud voice cut through the quiet exchange like a kunai through flesh as he jumped down from the roof, landing to the left of Lee, behind Shiori. Gai looked at him with disapproval for bursting in like he always did, then shot a glance at Shiori's face fulling with dread. Gai stood up slowly, stretching his back and smiling down at Shiori before walking over to Naruto and pushing him in the opposite direction. Sai jumps down beside Kakashi and stares blankly at the girl bleeding in the snow.

"What is it? I need to get her back to granny Tsunade," Naruto started.

"Listen closely to me, Naruto," Gai said in a hushed tone. "You of all people know that I'm never one to discourage a youthful approach to any situation, but I'm going to have to ask you to tone it down when dealing with our friend here."

Naruto gave him a confused glance, crossing his arms behind his head as he peeked around Gai's towering figure in front of him.

"I don't really think I have to be gentle with her. She knocked a huge male nurse straight on his ass back at the hospital, she's—"

"She's hurt and she's scared, Naruto. Please." Gai pleaded, but it came out sounding like more of a demand than a request, betraying his choice of words. Naruto sighed angrily, scratching his head in defeat.

"Fine," he said as he walked around Gai to rejoin the group, with Gai following behind him.

"So as I was saying, Shiori-chan, if you focus just a little bit of your chakra into your feet alone, it'll help keep them warm. You should try it until we get back to the hospital and—"

"Ahhh, Lee, such great advice as always," Gai said, slapping his hand onto Lee's shoulder. "But not the best for the situation she was in. If our friend here had put chakra to her feet, her chakra signature would've been traceable for us. She's a capable ninja, she knows what to do to avoid being tracked," Gai grinned down at the small female curled in on herself. Her eyes were turned away from him, instead looking at her feet. Her hands slithered from the oversized sleeves of Naruto's jacket and grasped them, her eyes closing as a faint yellow glow leaked from between her fingers. As the glow faded she let out a sigh of relief, slowly turning her golden eyes up to Lee.

"It helps," she said weakly, rubbing her hands against her bare legs. Lee smiled widely, turning to Gai in search of approval for his useful advice. Gai's hand was still planted on his shoulder, so he gave it a light squeeze in the spirit of praise.

"But it won't work forever, you know," chimed Kakashi in a sing-song tone of voice. "Even chakra won't keep you from getting frostbite, so I really suggest we make our way back to the hospital to get your obviously open wounds taken care of."

"Yeah, what Kakashi-sensei said. Granny Tsunade is probably losing her mind looking for ya too," Naruto said as he glanced at her.

Shiori looked around at the shinobi who had surrounded her. She knew they must pity her. A little runt like her must've been crazy to think she could outrun full-fledged jounin and escape before anyone was wiser. It was just like back in Otogakure. The looks they were giving her now sent a familiar shiver down her spine, it was the same way that Kabuto had looked at her the first time she lost to Sasuke.

 _She tried her best to win, but Sasuke was two years older than her and was wise in battle tactics and physically strong beyond both of their years. She managed to suffer through twenty minutes of brawling, however, the last time his foot came into contact with her skull in the form of a Lion's Barrage she was gone. Her body bounced off of the concrete floor with such great force she almost looked like a basketball. Sasuke squared his shoulders and cracked his knuckles, standing menacingly near her as he waited for her to rise again. When she didn't, he let out a guttural laugh and walked out of the room to bask in another victory, closing the heavy metal door behind him._

 _She laid in silence for what felt like years, left completely motionless by the pain that was ravaging her entire body. She was almost positive she could feel blood trickling from her face, her arm was sore and hard to move, and she could feel a stinging sensation from her left kneecap to the top of her training sandals. She thought if she stayed there long enough they would think she were dead and toss her out. She prayed that they would release her because she was too weak. But neither of those things happened._

 _She heard the metal door behind her slide open once again and shut her eyes tight, thinking that it must have been the boy coming back to finish what he had started. He must've been watching somehow, must've seen her chest rising and falling with each labored breath and decided to put her out of her misery._

 _As the thoughts of what he might do to her crushed her under their weight, she felt a soft hand grip her shoulders gently. The tenderness was both welcomed and severely unanticipated since it was such a change from what she had been experiencing there. Slowly, the hands flipped her from her stomach to her back. She felt the cool cobblestone poking into her spine as she lay there, and then she opened her eyes and took in a face she hadn't seen yet._

 _He looked to be Sasuke's age, but he had silver hair and black eyes framed by big, round glasses. A sound headband was fastened around his forehead and he was wearing a dark violet sleeveless shirt with a large collar over a white t-shirt and fingerless gloves. His hair was tied back in a spikey ponytail._

 _He was definitely a strange looking guy, but his looks weren't what caught Shiori's eye. It was instead the look in his eyes as he stared down at her broken body. Since she arrived at the facility, she had either been greeted with anger and hateful words or complete ignorance. This boy looked at her with a pity deeper than she had ever experienced in her life._

 _"_ _Where are you hurt other than your head?" he asked, rifling around in a first aid kit that she hadn't noticed before. She stared up at him for a few seconds until the pain in her arm persuaded her to speak._

 _"_ _I think my left arm might be fractured," she choked out quietly, "And my leg is scraped up pretty badly." He took her arm gently in his hands and inspected it, pressing down in a few spots that made her cringe, but released it before he could do any real damage._

 _"_ _It's not fractured, but it's definitely sprained. That can be fixed," he said as he took some loose bandages and wrapped them around her arm firmly. "Your head is what I'm worried about. He really gave you a beating up here," he gently pushed through her blood-matted hair to get to the open wounds that Sasuke's shoe had left her with. Blood was just barely trickling from it as he cleared the area. From the first aid kit he drew a cloth and water, and then he gently cleaned the blood up so he could properly bandage it._

 _After a few more minutes under the boy's tender care, Shiori was bandaged and cleaned up as best as she could be. He had applied some healing chakra to her injuries and the pain was starting to fade already. It was then that he stood up and helped her to her feet, half carrying her out of the stone-floored room to her bed. They walked through the winding corridors in near silence, the only sounds being their feet upon the ground and Shiori's labored breathing as she struggled to move her feet._

 _Finally they turned the corner down a long hall with a single door that was held shut by three padlocks. The boy opened it and led her inside, laying her gently on the bed she had been sleeping on since she arrived. He sighed as he inspected her bandages once more before turning to leave._

 _"_ _You've got to start training more or you're never going to gain any respect around here. I know you're scared, but the beating you just got was only a fraction of what you'll be experiencing soon." He offered her a loaded glance before walking out, closing the door and locking it behind him. She heard the distinct sound of metal upon metal as the three locks were set one by one._

 _Shiori was grateful for his tender care to her injuries. She was grateful that anyone at all had taken the time out of their day to give her anything other than a beating, but at the same time she was extremely confused. She couldn't wrap her head around why he had helped her so freely, or why he seemed to be one of the only people with any real consciousness in the village. Everyone else had a constant blank stare on their face, but he held emotion, his voice was velvety and comforting like she had known him before._

 _He couldn't possibly be a bad guy, could he? Surely not after putting in the extra effort to speed her healing rather than letting her suffer through the injuries silently, she thought. But the cold tone in his voice as he told her she needed to train told her otherwise. He knew something she didn't know; maybe he knew what Orochimaru had planned for her. She hoped silently that whatever his plan was, it wouldn't get much worse than it already was._

Shiori sighed as she came back to reality, standing shakily to her feet with some assistance from Lee. She looked at Gai and nodded to signal that she was ready to go, and then they took off in the direction of the hospital once again.


End file.
